Journalists, fact-checkers and students across six regions of the world will stop what they are doing every Thursday in March to focus on a big and pressing challenge: How to present and share factual content so that it takes off, undercutting fast-spreading disinformation.
ICFJ’s Empowering the Truth Global Summit offers a series of weekly online training sessions tailored for participants in Central and West Africa, Central Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, North America, and South and Southeast Asia. Participants will learn skills to help them amplify the reach of reliable facts. They also will be eligible for funding to pursue groundbreaking ways to better distribute facts online, including through innovative collaborations with influencers, subject matter experts or others from different professional backgrounds.
“It’s not enough to report the facts – we have to find smarter and more creative ways to spread them,” said Cristina Tardáguila, the senior program director for ICFJ who runs the Disarming Disinformation initiative. “The Summit will provide the latest tools and research-backed knowledge to help participants outpace mis/disinformation with sound, credible reporting and impactful distribution strategies. Every Thursday for the entire month of March, we’re asking the world of fact-checkers, journalists and students to stop for a couple of hours and focus on tackling this challenge.”
Expert trainers with regional knowledge will lead 1.5-hour classes for participants in Arabic, English, French, Hungarian or Spanish. All sessions will be online, except those for Central Europe, where the event will take place in person, in Budapest.
Empowering the Truth is part of Disarming Disinformation, run by ICFJ with lead funding from the Scripps Howard Foundation, an affiliate organization of the Scripps Howard Fund, which supports The E.W. Scripps Company’s charitable efforts. The three-year project will empower journalists and journalism students to fight disinformation.
The Summit trainings are being organized by ICFJ’s Pamela Howard Forum on Global Crisis Reporting (Americas, Middle East and Africa), with the Center for Independent Journalism (ECentralastern Europe) and BoomLive (South/Southeast Asia).
All sessions will cover audio/podcasts, video, content design, strategic communications and audience and community engagement, with a specific focus tailored to the target region. Examples include:
- Arabic: Mais Katt (investigative journalist and trainer) on audience engagement and strategies for making viral content
- English: Shirin Anlen (technologist, WITNESS) on working with deepfakes, synthetic media, and artificial intelligence
- French: Denis Teyssou (verified editorial director, Medialab, Agence France-Presse) on viral video and combating misinformation
- Spanish: ICFJ Knight Fellow Laura Zommer (co-founder, Factchequeado) on building partnerships and communications strategies
The Summit kicks off in February with keynote talks on the anatomy of disinformation in each of the target regions. The weekly training sessions will be held March 2-30. Participants who attend at least three of the five sessions will be eligible to apply for grants and mentorship to develop innovative multimedia projects that break new ground in spreading factual information. Learn more and register.